The Importance Of Protecting Your Commissions

Not only are thieves a problem for business owners who have the traditional brick and mortar store, but these thieves are also a big concern for businesses operating in cyber space as well. Out in the world of brick and mortar stores, thieves will take merchandise and money from businesses and it is certainly no different with online businesses.

If you are an internet business owner, it is important that you start protecting your commissions. Owner’s of online or internet businesses will often use anti-theft software in order to help protect their commissions. If you are a business owner, here are some tips on what you can do in order to help protect yourself as well as your commissions from online thieves.

1. Use Meta Refresh:

This is simply a little piece of HTML code that will automatically redirect your visitors to another page, such as your affiliate URL and it provides a convenient way of displaying your affiliate links in your newsletters as well. It will also usually help to reduce commission hijacking or bypassing. One of the biggest advantages of using the meta refresh is that if a merchant changes their affiliate links, it will be easy for you to quickly change your links on numerous pages simply by altering a single file.

One problem that needs to be recognized is that some of the search engines do not like the meta refresh because these are often used for malicious or unsavory purposes. So, this method needs to be used with caution.

2. Make use of one of the URL redirection services.

You can either use one of the free services or you can purchase a unique domain for each of the affiliate programs that you belong to. The URL redirection services will make affiliate links appear less obvious, this will help to eliminate some of your commission thefts as well.

3. Use an ad tracking service that is web-based.

The ad tracking provides a link that will hide the affiliate link which reduces commission theft.

4. Use a script for ad tracking.

A good ad tracking script will hide your affiliate link while providing useful tracking information. It has the added advantage of not promoting the domain of someone else.

5. Use a JavaScript redirect.

This should reduce commission theft by initially hiding the affiliate link.

It is important to realize that thievery is a big problem for many online businesses as well as brick and mortar businesses and you need to take the necessary precautions in order to ensure that your commissions are protected.